The detergent industry has for more than 30 years implemented different enzymes in detergent formulations, most commonly used enzymes includes proteases, amylases and lipases each adapted for removing various types of stains. In addition to the enzymes detergent compositions typically include a complex combination of ingredients. For example, most cleaning products include surfactant system, bleaching agents or builders. Despite the complexity of current detergents, there remains a need for developing new detergent compositions comprising new enzymes and/or enzyme blends.
Metalloproteases are proteolytic enzymes having an absolute requirement for metal ion for their activity. Most metalloproteases are zinc-dependent, although some use other transition metals. Metalloproteases have been widely used in different industries like food and brewing industry. One group of metalloproteases is the M4 family metalloproteases which have been used, in various applications. For example, the M4 metalloprotease known as Thermolysin has been used as a nonspecific proteinase to obtain fragments for peptide sequencing such as described in, e.g., EP 0 316 725. It has also been used as a peptide synthetase as described in WO 2000/37486, disclosing a method for production of the artificial sweetener aspartame. Another M4 metalloprotease is the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens metalloprotease, also known as Neutrase®, which has been used for many years as an additive in various food and feed products and, e.g., in brewing. This metalloprotease has also been described for use in detergent and cleaning compositions and processes as described, e.g., in WO 2007/044993, use of storage-stable metalloproteases in detergent or WO 2009/058518, and EP 1 288 282 (Unilever), which describes a blend of a metalloprotease and a serine protease for use in dish washing. WO 2000/60042 also describes detergent compositions containing a metalloprotease.
However, the use of metalloproteases in the detergent industry has been very limited and focus has been on the use of the metalloproteases Neutrase® and/or “NprE” as set forth in WO 2007/044993. Generally, metalloproteases are very unstable under conventional wash conditions and in conventional detergent compositions. Thus, the use of metalloproteases in wash and cleaning processes and in detergents has been limited.
The increased focus on improving the washing processes in order to make them more environmental friendly has resulted in a global tendency to lowering wash time, pH and temperature, decreasing the amount of detergent components which may influence the environment negatively. The present invention is directed to these and other important ends.